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The District’s long quest for a voting member in the U.S. House of Representatives ended in disappointment Tuesday as House Democrats said they put the bill on hold indefinitely.

House Majority Leader Steny H. Hoyer admitted party leaders are stymied by an amendment to the measure that guts the District’s strict gun laws.

“I don’t think we’re going to be able to move the bill at this time,” the Maryland Democrat told reporters on Capitol Hill.

Advocates for granting full representation to the nation’s capital vowed to continue the fight.

The bill has been stalled for months in the House after winning passage in the Senate with an amendment that prohibited the District from having gun laws more restrictive than the federal government’s laws.

The amendment by Sen. John Ensign, Nevada Republican, would have overturned the the city’s current gun laws, which essentially ban ownership of firearms and are among the toughest gun control measures in the country.

The legislation sailed out of the Senate in a bipartisan 61-37 vote in February. At the time, Democrats were excited to see the bill survive in any form.